The Eastern Daily Press in Norwich has launched an appeal to raise £200,000 to build a new NHS breast cancer unit, writes Dominic Ponsford.
The already overcrowded breast cancer department at Queen Elizabeth Hospital is set to get busier with referrals rising at a rate of 10 per cent a year.
Eastern Daily Press editor Chris Bishop said: “A woman who has just been given the worst news of her life has to walk through a room full of strangers, many of them waiting to see the same consultant, before she can sit down and come to terms with the fact she has cancer.
“When I heard that, I just thought we’ve got to be able to do something about this.”
Bishop said the Eastern Daily Press had been inundated with calls since asking readers to share their stories about breast cancer.
He said: “We put a couple of small ads in and we were bombarded with calls. People were calling with the most incredible stories.
Others just wanted to know how they could help; we raised £6,000 before we even launched the campaign.”
Deputy editor James Ruddy has previously been involved with campaigns by the paper to help Romanian orphans and victims of the civil war in Sierra Leone.
Ruddy said: “Charity begins at home and this time we are asking Eastern Daily Press readers to help us to help people in great need on our doorstep. The lives of so many of our readers have been touched by cancer in some way.”
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